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Irresponsible Smithfield
Smithfield Foods has a terrible track record--with its employees and in the community. In the last decade, the company has run afoul with federal and state regulators and environmentalists:
Irresponsible Smithfield
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- In 1997, Smithfield was fined $12.6 million by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 7,000 violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting process. The fine, one of the largest ever, was upheld with only a minor change by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
- A former operator of Smithfield’s two wastewater treatment facilities at its Virginia plants was released from federal prison last year after pleading guilty to knowingly discharging contaminated wastewater into the Pagan River and trying to cover it up.
- Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant in Bladen County, North Carolina, has been cited several times by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for exceeding its permitted waste discharge limits.
- Similarly, Smithfield’s North Carolina factory hog farms have received numerous notices of violations and fines from state regulators for waste-lagoon spills.
- In June of 2000, Smithfield was sued by a number of environmental organizations for negligence, liability, trespass, and unfair trade practices related to the operation of swine waste disposal lagoons.
- Water pollution concerns from waste-lagoons have become so severe that the company recently signed an agreement with the state to phase out the lagoon storage system on company-owned farms, committing up to $65 million to develop alternative technology and to clean up the environment.
Other legal actions taken against the company include:
- Smithfield faced scrutiny by the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division for consolidation in the hog production industry.
- The company was investigated by the USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration for anti-competitive practices.
- Smithfield was sued by the Attorney General of the State of Iowa for possible violation of the state’s Corporate Farming Law.
On top of all this, Smithfield has been under fire for its anti-worker behavior:
- Smithfield has been accused of running the most vicious anti-union campaigns in North Carolina. The company has used the Bladen County Sheriff’s Department as its private security to deny its workers the right to join a union at the Bladen County plant in Tar Heel.
- The Human Rights Watch focused on the company's anti-worker treatment in two reports: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants (2004) and Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards (2000)
- Smithfield has been under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board for a multitude of unfair labor practice charges at the Bladen County plant.
- The National Labor Relations Board is currently attempting to get an injunction in Federal Court to prevent Smithfield from further committing any unfair labor practices at its Wilson, North Carolina plant.
- The increased line speed at Smithfield’s processing plants creates very unsafe working conditions. The accident rate among workers at the Smithfield Foods Bladen County plant is among the highest in the nation; hundreds of former Smithfield workers are permanently disabled and unable to find employment in Eastern North Carolina.
- In July, 1999, a 29-year-old employee suffered a seizure and died of a heat stroke after working on Smithfield Packing's kill floor in its Smithfield, Virginia plant. Four other workers at the same plant were treated for heat-related illnesses later that month. This comes only seven months after an employee was killed by electrocution at Smithfield’s Utah hog production facility.
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